Pearson is yet another organization that produces a large number of ESL textbooks used in the classroom. Together with ESL classroom materials, the corporation created the Pearson PTE exam, which is a test that many ESL students take before studying or working in an English-speaking country. It is now the world's largest education company and was formerly the world's largest book publisher. Pearson combined its Penguin Books division with German company Bertelsmann in 2013. In 2015, the company announced a shift to a strictly educational focus.

If you wish to take the PTE, you must pass a listening component of the exam, which typically takes 45 minutes to an hour to complete. While Pearson's website doesn't have much free material to assist you to prepare for the test, they do offer an offline practice test with audio files and worksheets to help you practice your listening, reading, and writing skills. If you need more listening practice for the PTE exam, you can take a variation of the online practice exam. Costs range from $9.99 to $59.99 depending on the edition of the test, but each one will assess your listening, speaking, reading, and writing abilities.

Website: pearson.com

The British Council website contains a plethora of free resources to assist English language learners in improving their English skills. A Royal Charter governs the British Council. It is also a public corporation and a non-departmental public body (NDPB) supported by the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office. The company's headquarters are in Stratford, London. Stevie Spring is its chairman, while Scott McDonald is its CEO. While the website's study material is nearly entirely in British English, the extensive exercises and detailed explanations are beneficial to both British and American English students. The British Council contains a lot of valuable material about listening examinations, such as recommendations for preparing for your English listening exam and thorough listening exercises.

The listening activities are divided into five categories: A1 and A2 (for beginners), B1 and B2 (for intermediates), and C1 (for advanced). In addition, each exercise includes a worksheet to complete after each activity, as well as an answer key and audio transcript to assist you in checking your answers. While the exercises on the British Council website aren't specifically developed for an exam, they are precise enough to help you refine your listening skills as you prepare for test day.

Website: britishcouncil.org

FluentU transforms actual videos, such as music videos, movie trailers, news, and inspirational presentations, into individualized language learning sessions. A site that can provide such rich experiences, backed up by the correct set of tools, has the potential to revolutionize language acquisition. FluentU is provided to you by a worldwide team of enthusiastic language learners. Because you can quickly browse and choose something suited to your level and interests, videos are organized by difficulty (beginning to native), topic (arts and entertainment, health and lifestyle, etc.), and format (video blog, news, shows, etc.). For simple learning and comprehension, each word is accompanied by an in-context definition, an image, audio, and many example phrases.

You can also click on a word to see how it appears in other films on the site. You can spend hours honing your listening skills with the help of entertaining exercises and informative explanations to offer you the full English immersion experience. All videos are subtitled and translated into English. Is there a word in English that you don't understand? Click to view definitions and examples in context. FluentU's learn mode teaches you through video sequences that depict actual life and culture.

Website: fluentu.com

This is a University of Cambridge department, and as part of an institution with a global reputation for academic quality, they generate insights based on research and expertise. Combining all of this ensures that their one-of-a-kind strategy satisfies learners' real-world demands through inclusive and accessible products and services. If you've been learning English with textbooks, you've most likely used a Cambridge English book at some point. Cambridge English, in addition to creating great classroom study material for students and teachers, offers a number of free tools to help you improve your English skills.

Cambridge English is also the firm that established the Cambridge English tests, which people from all around the world take for jobs or immigration. The Cambridge English tests, like most exams, include a listening component, which you can prepare for by working through some of the listening activities on their website. Every lesson is assigned a degree of difficulty based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). These include a variety of exercises, such as gap-fills and comprehension questions on the audio material, to help you develop your listening skills and vocabulary. Furthermore, because the tasks aren't overly particular, you can use them for Cambridge English exam prep or general listening practice.

Website: cambridgeenglish.org

Player FM, sometimes known as PlayerFM, is a podcast finding and cataloging service that lists podcasts broadcast on various podcast publishing platforms. Michael Mahemoff, a software designer, invented it in 2011. In May 2020, Maple Media, a mobile media business, paid an unknown sum for the service. You can select a podcast that targets English language learners if you have a smartphone, but if you have decent listening abilities, you can choose a podcast from the thousands available on the web.

There is a wide range of podcasts available for English language learners. Some are intended for beginners, while others are intended for more advanced students. Attending an English language lesson may be comparable to listening to podcasts in this area. The purpose of the podcast is frequently for you to learn something about the English language, such as new phrasal verbs, how to apply a grammar rule, crucial steps for developing reading abilities, and much more. All of this while walking your dog, cooking supper, rocking your child to sleep, commuting to work, and much more. Podcasts are an excellent tool for kids to enhance their listening skills while on the go. If you've never heard of them, they're audio files that you can stream or download from the internet to your smartphone or computer. They usually come in a series.

Website: player.fm

Lyrics Training is a simple and enjoyable approach to learn and enhance your foreign language skills by watching music videos and reading the lyrics to your favorite songs. Lyrics Training also includes a karaoke option that allows you to sing along with the complete lyrics. Lyrics Training helps you learn new vocabulary and idioms, as well as reinforce grammar concepts, by continuously writing the missing words. This website teaches you how to educate your ear to recognize sounds and words in a foreign language in a very short period of time, educating your brain practically unconsciously, whether you know the meaning of all the words or not.

You can train your brain to detect foreign language words and sounds. Listening to varied dialects and pronunciations allows your brain to be more flexible. Learning new words and expressions from song lyrics can be more effective than memorizing long lists of isolated words or phrases. True language acquisition, according to experts, does not necessitate the conscious application of grammatical rules. With frequent practice, gradually assimilate them. When your favorite songs get stuck in your mind, try singing them in karaoke mode to see how quickly your pronunciation improves.

Website: lyricstraining.com

EnglishCentral (EC) is a commercial learning platform (CLP) that is ideal for individual learning, in-class language practice, or incorporation into a course curriculum. The website has several legitimate commercials, documentaries, movie trailers, news pieces, and speeches that provide substantial listening and speaking opportunities necessary for language development. Because educators cannot provide adequate classroom time or resources, a CLP like EC can assist bridge the gap. EC is easily available for tablets, personal computers (PCs), and smartphones, and its dynamic platform allows teachers to conveniently monitor and respond to student efforts.

The EC website, which the business calls as as "a YouTube for language learners", contains 15,400 videos covering a wide spectrum of student interests. Some videos were obtained through licensing agreements, but the majority (such as Viola Davis' 2017 Oscar acceptance speech or the recent address to Congress by big tech CEOs) are in the public domain. These are materials of significant relevance to students of popular culture and business, while other videos include science, travel, and food. They encourage students to put in the time and effort required to improve their listening comprehension and speaking skills.

Students find it simple to navigate the website once they become acquainted with it. Students can synchronize their phones with other devices such as PCs by downloading an app from the EC website, allowing them to resume their studies whenever they want. When logging into the EC website, learners can select a video from themes such as Business, Media, Social, and Academic, as well as the level of difficulty of the video (Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced). Users can change the speed at which a video plays, listen to it many times, and review the video's transcript. They can also acquire a dictionary definition by clicking on any word in the transcript.

Website: englishcentral.com